The Cowardly Welsh Labour Brexit Deal

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So here's a question. What do you do when those powers you thought you were going to receive post Brexit as part of a devolved administration when you realise that Westminster has grabbed them for itself?

Well apparently the answer is that if you're Scottish you fight and if you're Welsh you give in.

In a deal cobbled together yesterday the Welsh Labour government has agreed that Westminster can keep those powers for seven years and that any further changes in Westminster power would have to be agreed by the devolved administrations.

So let's look into this.

Firstly the UK government must delight in the "divide and rule" tactic which Welsh Labour have agreed to. Pressure will now turn on Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland. Welsh Labour have stabbed her in the back in an issue where the Scottish government would have rightly assumed they had common cause.

Seven years is a remarkably long period of time. Longer than a normal Parliamentary term. Why did they not only give in but give in for this long a period? Also if Labour does form a UK wide government within this period will they give Wales these powers earlier? We need to know.

I have said in this blog before that Carwyn Jones lacked stature to lead Wales. This deal (and deal is the right word, for it has not been negotiated out of any degree of political principle) just means that Welsh Labour have one less immediate issue to wrestle with no matter what it's importance to Wales as a nation. This is the politics of the lazy, the "quick-fix".

That's the current leader of Wales betraying the nation. The fact that the man who is tipped as the next First Minister (Mark Drakeford) was also involved in this "deal" does not bode well for the future.

What Westminster will also have learnt from the deal is that the Welsh government is weak. After all it's a minority Conservative UK government and only around because of the Democratic Unionists in Northern Ireland. However even in that state of affairs the Welsh Labour government caved in. What it means is that should the Conservatives be able to form a majority administration they will know they can push Welsh Labour around.

So this "deal" has been done by Welsh Labour people afraid of battle, afraid of putting themselves on the line for the cause of Welsh devolution. This "deal" has been negotiated by cowards.

I'll leave you with one fact. If this deal is so good why is it that the happiest Politician in Wales today is likely to be Alun Cairns?

Until the next time.